The invention is in the field of battery-driven, hand-held cleaning devices for brushing, scrubbing or buffing by the use of rotary cleaning attachments and has as its object to provide a device of this type which is particularly easy to manufacture, and is therefore inexpensive, but which is effective in use.
There is a wide variety of power-driven cleaning devices using rotary cleaning attachments and perhaps capable of dispensing a cleaning or polishing agent. Some examples are illustrated in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,300,128; 1,374,772; 1,550,187; 1,578,013; 1,736,446; 1,952,910; 2,635,268; 2,730,738; 3,065,477; 3,638,264 and 3,932,908. The cleaning device embodying this invention differs from the prior art known to applicant by its particularly synergistic combination of parts which combination makes it both efficient to use and inexpensive to manufacture.
A particular embodyment of the invention is a battery-driven cleaning device made primarily of inexpensive molded plastic parts. The device includes a housing made of a pair of elongated mating half-shells which form a head at the front end of the device and a battery compartment and a handle at the back end of the device. A disc-shaped power unit is gripped within the jaws of the half-shells forming the head of the housing. The power unit includes an electric motor, a reduction gear system driven by the motor and a pair of downwardly facing power-coupling receptacles which are spaced from each other and are rotatably driven by the reduction gear system. The receptacles receive interchangeable cleaning attachments such as rotary brushes, sponges and buffers. A manually operable electrical switch of a particularly efficient construction selectively connects the motor to batteries contained in the battery compartment of the housing. A detachable reservoir unit may be affixed to the housing above the power drive unit so as to selectively dispense a cleaning agent through a spout which extends downwardly through a suitable opening in the power drive unit at a location adjacent the rotary cleaning attachments. The reservoir unit includes a manually operable value unit for pumping out cleaning agent by a press button located near the housing handle. The cleaning device can operate with or without the reservoir unit. There is a pivoted, adjustable rest stand at the underside of the device which can be folded to be out of the way while the device is used for cleaning but can be unfolded to permit resting the device on a working surface without crushing the brushes or other cleaning attachments.